Sunday’s The Daily Democrat published State’s wall of debt dead ahead, by Steven Greenhut, potent enough to keep you up at night, if you practice a habit of conscious critical thought.

A cursory glance at Gov. Jerry Brown’s new budget could make you believe that California’s days of fiscal gloom are over as he champions a balanced budget and newfound “fiscal restraint.”

But it’s all manipulated spin to divert your attention to the details. Here are a few nuggets to rattle your nerves if you dare:

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office agrees that the budget is basically balanced, but the agency’s head, Mac Taylor, expressed concern:
“It doesn’t pay all of the wall of debt within the time period. It builds up very little of a reserve by the end of that period, and it does nothing regarding our various retirement-related obligations.”

Even more disturbing:

Others were blunter about California’s financial health. As the Los Angeles Times reported: “It owes Wall Street more per resident than almost every other state. And it has accumulated a crushing load of debt for retiree pensions and health care, now totaling more than taxpayers spend each year on all state programs combined.”

There’s more, and I don’t expect anyone of those who prefer to continue living in a delusional state of denial. This addiction to living as if money can be plucked from whomever has it, at will of any elected officials and their supporting voters is more powerful than any addiction to nicotine, hard drugs or alcohol. It appears evident that there is no hope for a recovery until the collective abusers and enablers hit rock bottom.

The victory of Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid can be attributed to the underestimated power of the Public Employee Unions to get out the vote. “One of the first orders of business to come up in the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives will be the demand for bailouts of states where expenditures have been especially profligate – California, New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Connecticut. Throughout 2009 and 2010, these states governments have stayed above water by repeated infusions of federal cash. These one-shot stimulus payments must be repeated each year. They are all non-recurring expenditures requiring separate annual appropriations.”…”The fiscal crises facing state and local governments and school boards makes these unions and their political clout vulnerable, potentially at the mercy of a Republican controlled House of Representatives. We may, at long last, have a way to liberate our nation from the domination of those who should be our public servants but instead are frequently our union masters.” Click here to read the article published at DickMorris.com

With the Golden State still struggling to balance its books, politicians from both sides of the aisle have come up with a nifty way to avoid responsibility for the mess: Blame the voters.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, summed it up for his fellow pols recently by telling a reporter: “All of those propositions tell us how we must spend our money. . . . This is no way, of course, to run a state.” State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, has made similar comments in denouncing “ballot-box budgeting.”

For decades, state officials have habitually proposed deep cuts to the most popular programs unless voters agree to higher taxes. Tired of being manipulated, voters have used the ballot initiative to put some programs off-limits.

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The status quo of education in the U.S. is destructive to our Nation, and to ignore this truth is to be numb, unconscious or in denial of reality.

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge. Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament."--A Nation At Risk - April 1983

Drug War Clock for Current Year

Police arrested an estimated 858,408 persons for cannabis violations in 2009. Of those charged with cannabis violations, approximately 89 percent were charged with possession only.
Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation Your tax dollars at work--but for whom?

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Dedicated to considerations of justice and the pursuit of goodness… "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth." --Plato on Socrates